J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Venice, Austria and Southern Germany ... > Venice and Botzen Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Grand Canal, Venice 1840

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Grand Canal, Venice’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 36 Recto:
The Grand Canal, Venice 1840
D31860
Turner Bequest CCCXIII 36
Pencil on cream wove paper, 123 x 173 mm
Partial watermark ‘atman’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘36’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCXIII – 36’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, this somewhat incoherent drawing appears to show palaces on the Grand Canal, as on adjacent pages including folio 35 verso opposite (D31859), a view near the Rialto.
Features here include a double arcade or arched windows, a spire or finial and what seems to be a colonnade further off, but the details, likely recorded while in motion on the water, are too swift and jumbled to enable a specific identification.

Matthew Imms
September 2018

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Grand Canal, Venice 1840 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2018, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2019, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-grand-canal-venice-r1196755, accessed 23 April 2024.